Chapters
ACRE China
As
an
integral
part
of
WP1
within
the
Climate
Science
for
Service
Partnership
China,
ACRE
China
is
tasked
to
recover,
image
and
digitise
historical
daily
to
sub-
daily
terrestrial
and
marine
data.
Data
comes
from
stations
in
China
and
surrounding
countries
and
from
the
log
books
of
ships
in
the
region.
All
data
is
stored
in
international
repositories,
including
ICOADS,
ISTI
,
GPCC
,
and
the
ISPD.
As
the
data
is
used
in
reanalyses
systems
including
20CR,
ACRE
China
scientists
conduct
verification
and
applications reanalysis outputs.
To date, digitisation work has included
1
.
Sub-daily
surface
air
pressure
data
of
6
stations
in
eastern
China
for
the
periods before 1951 (submitted)
2
.
Daily
records
of
surface
air
pressure,
temperature
and
precipitation
of
19
stations
in
eastern
China
pre
1951
(submitted soon)
3
.
Ancient
records
of
soil
moisture
(Yuxuefencun)
for
6
stations
for
time
periods 1730-1900 (to be submitted)
4
.
Digitization
of
surface
air
pressure,
temperature
and
precipitation
of
Beijing
station
for
1757-1762,
and
it
may
be
among
the
earliest
weather
records of the world (underway)
Planned
work
includes
high
resolution
downscaling
of
20CR
output
over
the
Chinese
region
via
the
Met
Office
PRECIS
team.
This
would
vastly
enhance
the
value
of
20CR
output
for
the
Chinese
climate
science
community,
plus
wide
ranging
climate
applications
and
services,
policy
makers,
planners
and environmental managers.
Contact: Prof. Guoyu Ren, National
Climate Center, China Meteorological
Administration, Beijing, China
ACRE Pacific
The
South
Western
Pacific
is
a
region
that
is
critical
for
us
to
examine
if
we
wish
to
understand
how
Earth’s
climate
system
works.
We
can
expand
our
knowledge
using
historical
climate
data.
New
visualization
tools
can
bring
these
data
to
life.
The
extended
reanalysis
without
radiosondes
effort
(ACRE-
facilitated
20th
Century
Reanalysis
Project
[20CR])
allows
huge
data
integrations
that
no
one
else
can
do
by
themselves.
It
gives
everyone
global
context
for
local
conditions
via
circulation
reconstructions
(past
climate
and
weather)
to
pair
with
in
situ
station
data,
shipboard
measurements,
and
traditional
knowledge.
The
veracity
of
the
20CR
reconstruction
is
dependent
on
the
temporal
and
spatial
density
of
observations.
We
need
to
contribute
by
providing
more
data
to
ACRE
Pacific.
We
have
continued
funding
of
ACRE
Pacific
via
the
New
Zealand
National
Institute
of
Water
and
Atmospheric
Research Ltd (NIWA) for the future.
Contact: Dr Drew Lorrey, National
Institute of Water and Atmospheric
Research, Auckland, New Zealand
ACRE Antarctica
Critical
past
weather
observations
are
being
rescued
for
the
purpose
of
extending
Southern
Hemisphere
coverage
within
global
reanalyses
as
far
back
as
possible
into
the
1800s.
Primary
work
consists
of
identifying
data
resources,
digital
scanning,
keying
data,
quality
control,
and
archiving
observations
at
NIWA.
The
augmented
reanalyses
will
be
used
to
(i)
investigate
poorly
understood
aspects
of
New
Zealand
regional
climate
that
are
linked
to
high-latitude
atmospheric
and
oceanic
dynamics,
(ii)
examine
daily
synoptic
type
trends,
and
(iii)
establish
a
baseline
more
representative
of
pre-industrial
conditions
against
which
current
and
future
climate
can
be
compared.
The
synoptic
type
classification
completed
in
(ii)
is
being
binned
into
multi-decadal
intervals
according
to
phases
of
the
Interdecadal
Pacific
Oscillation.
Rescued
data
are
being
archived
and
made
publicly
available
through
the
International
Surface
Pressure
Databank
and
NIWA's
database.
The
initiative
is
funded
under
the
New
Zealand
Deep
South
National
Science
Challenge
.
Contact: Dr Drew Lorrey, National
Institute of Water and Atmospheric
Research, Auckland, New Zealand
ACRE Canada
Data Rescue: Archives and Weather
ACRE
Canada
is
an
interdisciplinary
team
which
leads
a
project
to
retrieve
the
information
contained
in
the
Montreal
based
McGill
Observatory’s
historical
weather
records.
It
started
with
the
Canadian
Volunteer
Data
Rescue
project
2010-14,
where
over
500,000
eastern
Canadian
weather
observations
from
1780-1870
were
digitized by volunteers.
DRAW
is
its
second
project
and
focusses
on
the
handwritten
McGill
weather
logbooks.
The
team
is
calling
on
volunteers
across
the
world
to
help
transcribe
the
tens
of
thousands
of
pages
of
weather
observations
captured
over the last 150 years.
The
project’s
value
is
two-fold.
The
weather
data
contained
in
the
logbooks
has
the
unique
capacity
to
improve
our
understanding
of
Montreal’s
climate
and
history.
Simultaneously,
the
knowledge
gained
through
the
process
of
transforming
historical
information
from
a
paper
format
to
a
digital
one
has
invaluable
potential
for
application
in
other historical contexts.
Contact:
Dr Vicky Slonosky
Department of Geography
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
US Colonial Era Data Study
Exploring
Connections
between
the
Past and Today
The
Colonial
Era
Data
Study
is
a
wide
ranging
educational
based
climate
change
research
project.
This
research
combines
the
areas
of
history,
mathematics/statistics,
earth
science,
computer/data
visualization,
and
global
communication.
The
project
is
sponsored
by
groups
such
as
ACRE
and
the
American
Philosophical
Society
and
utilizes
representatives
from
NOAA,
UK
Hadley
Centre,
university
professor,
and
a
museum
archivist.
It
is
one
of
many
projects
sponsored
by
ACRE
to
recover,
digitize,
and
analyze
historical
weather
observations.
A
second
phase
of
the
U.S.
CEDS
project
is
actively
expanding
these
concepts
with
various
middle
and
high
schools
in
a
hands-on
learning
experience.
This
project
presents
appealing
materials
for
the
development
of
communication
skills
and
the
accrual
of
important
world
knowledge.
Because
of
this
topic’s
interdisciplinary
nature,
the
project
can
also
be
particularly
effective
in
various
language
arts
instruction,
both
for mainstream and ELL students.
Contact: Mr John Buchanan,
Reinsurance at Insurance Services
Office, a Verisk Company, New York,
USA
ACRE Meso-America
The
Meso-American
initiative
aims
to
recover
historical
weather
observations
across
countries
from
southern
Mexico
to
Panama
including
Costa
Rica,
Nicaragua,
Honduras,
El
Salvador,
Guatemala and Belize.
Contact: Dr Pablo Imbach, CATIE,
CATIE 7170, Turrialba- Siquirres 30501
Turrialba , Cartago , Costa Rica
ACRE Arctic
Millions
of
handwritten
weather
and
ocean
observations
from
100
years
ago
have
been
carefully
preserved
in
ship
logbooks.
They
contain
weather
and
sea
ice
information
which
promises
an
insight
into
the
historical
climactic
conditions
in
the
Arctic.
The
Odweather
citizen
science
program
transformed
the
large
number
of
crucial
handwritten
observations
into
digital
forms
that
can
be
assimilated
by
sparse-input
reanalysis
systems.
The
output
of
these
systems
extends
our
baseline
knowledge
of
the
Arctic’s
historical
climate.
The
Arctic
is
currently
experiencing
rapid
loss
of
sea
ice
and
other
environmental
changes.
It’s
imperative
to
know
how
unusual
these
events
are
and
whether
some
part
can
be
explained
by
the
large
range
of
natural
variability
that
is
characteristic
of
the
climate
system
or
some
other
factor.
Sorting
out
and
explaining
the
different
regional
effects
that
play
out
in
the
Arctic
is
a
difficult
problem.
Greatly
assisting
this
process,
the
detailed
perspective
provided
by
the
logbook
data
after
it
is
passed
through
a
reanalysis
system
provides
the
baseline
information
necessary
to
begin
to
make
these
kinds
of distinctions.
Contact: : Dr Kevin Wood, University of
Washington, Joint Institute for the Study
of the Atmosphere and Oceans (JISAO),
Seattle, USA
ACRE Southeast Asia
The
primary
goal
of
this
regional
foci
is
to
build
both
capabilities
and
capacities
within
Southeast
Asian
institutions,
agencies
and
National
Meteorological
Services
to
improve
and
extend
historical
instrumental,
documentary
and
paleo
databases
of
SE
Asian
weather/climate.
The
databases
will
contribute
to
the
generation
of
high-
quality,
high-resolution
historical
weather
reconstructions
(reanalyses).
These
new
baselines
will
allow
scientists
and
policy
makers
across
the
region
to
address
weather/climate
extremes,
impacts
and
risks
in
ways
and
over
time
spans
not
previously possible.
Activities of the project include
1
.
Compiling
a
data
inventory
of
all
known
data
for
the
region
-
from
ACRE sources or our partners
2
.
Awareness
raising
about
ACRE
and
recovery activities.
3
.
Taking
part
in
conferences
and
workshops
4
.
Developing
a
network
of
regional
multi-disciplinary
and
academic
contacts in humanities and sciences
5
.
Research
into
extreme
weather:
storms,
floods,
and
typhoons
in
archival resources
6
.
Working
on
projects
to
trace
particular
extreme
weather
events,
or
comparative histories of events
Contact: Dr Fiona Wiliamson, Research
Fellow, Singapore Management
University
Indian Ocean Data Rescue
initiative (INDARE)
WMO
and
partner
organizations
promote
the
initiation
and
implementation
of
regional
and
sub-regional
climate
data
initiatives
and
foster
collaborative
approaches
to
work
on
climate
data
in
an
end-to-end
approach,
including,
but
not
limited
to,
the
recovery,
digitization,
quality
control
and
homogenisation
of
the
historical
climate
data.
Such
initiatives
offer
also
excellent
opportunities
to
use
best
practices
and
tools
to
analyze
climate
data
and
generate
additional
information
on
climate
change
and
climate
risks
at
national
scale
and
the
scale
of
the
region
of
interest.
The
INdian
Ocean
DAta
REscue
(INDARE)
initiative
was
launched
at
the
first
international
workshop
on
the
recovery
of
climate
heritage
in
the
Indian
Ocean
rim
countries
and
islands,
21-24
April
Maputo,
Mozambique
2014.
The
participants
consisted
of
several
directors
of
National
Meteorological
and
Hydrological
Services,
international
and
regional
institutions
representatives,
and
national
and
international
climate
experts.
They
agreed
to
develop
an
implementation
plan
of
the
INDARE
initiative.
A
steering
committee
was
established
in
consultation
with
the
countries
to
finalize
the
implementation
plan
and
develop
the
working
structure
and
annual
work-plans.
The
steering
committee
met
in
Geneva
(29
September
-
1
October
2014),
and
adopted
the
implementation
plan
and
developed
the
INDARE
working
structure
and
work
plan
for
2014-2015.
The
19-20
October
2015
Mauritius
meeting
(19-20
October
2015)
adopted
the 2015-2016 work plan.
Contact: Mr Omar Baddour, Chief, Data
Management Applications Division,
World Meteorological Organisation
(WMO), Geneva, Switzerland
ACRE South Africa
The
southern
African
initiative
aims
to
recover
instrumental
climate
data
for
the
African
sub-continent,
and
also
the
SW
Indian
Ocean
region.
It
is
also
one
of
three
Southern
Hemisphere
core
regions
for
data
rescue
under
the
EU-funded
Copernicus
C3S
Data
Rescue
Service.
Given
the
important
historical
replenishment
stations
at
the
Cape
of
Good
Hope
and
others
in
Madagascar,
Mauritius
etc,
meteorological
observations
began
as
early
as
the
18th
century
in
some
places,
but
usually
for
only
brief
periods
of
time.
During
the
course
of
the
19th
century,
colonial
stations
were
established
across
much
of
South
Africa,
and
so
too,
the
gradual
introduction
of
meteorological
registers.
A
further
valuable
source
of
information
is
from
ship
log
books,
particularly
those
docked
at
ports
for
longer
periods
of
time.
ACRE
South
Africa
aims
to
find
as
yet
unknown
or
seemingly
‘lost’
records
and
have
these
digitized.
There
are
also
many
known
records
that
require
digitization.
Work
has
already
started
on
some
of
these,
such
as
the
long
record
kept
by
the
Royal
Astronomical
Observatory
at
the
Cape
of
Good
Hope
(now
SAAO),
which
started
in
the
mid-
1830s.
Contact: Prof. Stefan Grab, School of
Geography, Archaeology &
Environmental Studies, University of the
Witwatersrand, South Africa
ACRE Japan
A
joint
network
of
Japanese
Universities
and
Institutes
aims
to
expand
the
understanding
of
climate
change
and
variability
in
the
Asian
monsoon
region
through
the
data
rescue
of
instrumental
meteorological
observations
since
the
19th
century.
Digitized
meteorological
data
have
been
provided
to
ISPD
(The
International
Surface
Pressure
Databank)
and
contributed
to
the
improvement
of
the
20th
century
reanalysis
dataset.
Japan
Climate
Data
Project
(JCDP)
is
one
of
the
active
programs
under
the
ACRE-Japan.
Target
activities are:
1.
Data
rescue
of
daily
rainfall
data
in
Japan,
East,
Southeast
and
South
Asian
countries
back
to
the
late
19th
century
for
Asian
monsoon
researches.
2
.
Data
rescue
of
meteorological
data
in
stations
since
the
1860s
and
ship
logs
sailing
along
the
coastal
region
of
East
and
Southeast
Asia
since
the
1780s
including
the
tropical
cyclone
tracks
since
the
1880s
for
tropical
cyclone researches.
3
.
Data
rescue
of
instrumental
meteorological
data
observed
in
Japan
by
lighthouses
and
individual
personnel
before
the
official
weather
station
were
operated
for
climate
studies
in
the
19th
century.
That
of
former
local
observatories
of
the
current JMA since the 1880s.
4
.
Data
rescue
of
upper
air
observations
in
Japan,
East,
Southeast
Asia
and
Western
North
Pacific Islands since the 1920s.
5
.
Data
rescue
of
civil
and
military
meteorological
observations
and
their
history
and
background
during
World
War
II
including
their
historical
perspective.
6
.
Investigation
of
early
instrumental
meteorological
observation
in
Japan
deployed
by
foreign
visitors
since
the
18th century.
Contact: Hisayuki Kubota Faculty of
Science, Hokkaido University
Sapporo, Japan
ACRE Chile
Chile,
a
long
and
narrow
ribbon
of
land,
with
its
exceptional
natural
borders
of
the
arid
Atacama
desert
to
the
north,
extension
to
the
Antarctic
ice
in
the
south,
the
Andes
mountain
range
to
the
east
and
the
Pacific
Ocean
in
the
west,
encapsulates
most
climatic
regimes
on
Earth.
In
Chile,
more
than
in
any
other
country,
meteorological
observations
are
vital
to
the
whole
spectrum
of
national
and
international
interests.
Nevertheless,
the
terrestrial
and
maritime
areas
of
Chile
and
the
south-east
Pacific
are
one
of
the
least
represented
areas
in
terms
of historical weather and climate data.
Supported
by
formal
agreements
between
ACRE
and
agencies
of
the
Chilean
Government,
a
first
step
has
been
completed
to
catalogue
the
repositories
of
meteorological
and
oceanographic
data.
They
cover
the
full
scope
from
across
the
offices
of
the
national
archives,
the
naval,
oceanographic
and
meteorological
services,
and
include
lighthouse
records
and
British
and
Spanish
logbooks.
There
is
a
vast
and
necessary
task
for
ACRE
Chile
to
address
the
recovery,
imaging
and
digitisation
of
it
historical
weather
and
climate
records,
as
part
of
a
wider
data rescue initiative in South America.
Contact: Mariela Vásquez Guzmán
ACRE British and Irish Isles
The
UK
and
Ireland
have
some
of
the
longest
and
most
detailed
weather
and
other
climate-related
records
anywhere
in
the
world,
with
high
spatial
density
over
land
and
large
archives
of
ship
observations
taken
across
all
ocean
basins.
Millions
of
pages
of
observations,
from
the
18th
century
onwards,
remain
in
paper
archives
and
require rescue.
ACRE
British
&
Irish
Isles
aims
to
create
a
network
of
researchers
to
coordinate
efforts
to
catalogue
what
data
is
available,
scan
logbooks,
transcribe
and
quality
control
the
data,
before
adding
it
to
international
archives.
The
focus
is
on
meteorological
observations
and
related
metrics
such
as
tide
gauge
and
auroral
observations.
The
network
also
includes
researchers
working
on
more
qualitative
data
such
as
crop
yields,
flooding
and
drought
records,
damage
from
extreme
storms
and
human
stories
of
how
weather influenced lives and livelihoods.
Contact:
Prof Ed Hawkins
,
Department of Meteorology,
University of Reading,
United Kingdom
ACRE Oceans
About
70%
of
the
Earth’s
surface
is
covered
by
oceans.
Oceans
and
their
interaction
with
the
atmosphere
and
with
land
masses
are
critical
to
understanding
the
climate
system.
Sea
temperatures
are
used
to
set
boundary
conditions
for
atmospheric
reanalyses.
The
most
severe
weather
systems,
typhoons,
cyclones
and
hurricanes
are
generated
over the oceans.
ACRE-Oceans
links
other
terrestrial
ACRE
foci,
as
well
as
being
a
focus
of
activity
in
its
own
right.
All
the
other
ACRE
regional
foci
have
maritime
borders.
Descriptive
marine
weather
observations
can
be
found
as
far
back
as
the
16th
century,
instrumental
observations
from
the
18th
century.
State
archives
contain
records
of
their
naval
forces,
including
many
logbooks.
Commercial
shipping
records
are
also
rich
source
of
data.
From
the
19th
century
meteorological
services,
and
scientific
institutions
began
the
systematic
collection
of
meteorological,
oceanographic
and
glaciological
observations.
All
these
records
are
sources
of
historical
surface
synoptic
pressure
and
wind
data,
the
latter
now
also
a
variable
to
be
assimilated
into
reanalyses.
Many
records also contain sea-ice data
There
is
far
more
data
in
state
archives,
museums
and
academic
and
scientific
institutions,
than
in
current
digital
data
depositories,
and
more
sources
are
being
discovered
every
year.
Most
recently
Norwegian
and
Finnish
archives
have
been
mined
for
Southern
Ocean
data,
and
as
a
result
other
significant
sources
have
been
found
in
archives
in
both
countries
and
throughout
Scandinavia.
ACRE-OCEANS
in
conjunction
with
the
NOAA
linked
RECovery
of
Logbooks
and
International
Marine
data
(RECLAIM)
Project,
identifies
sources
of
marine
data
(usually
with
a
regional
data
focus
such
as
the
Southern
Ocean
or
Asia/Pacific),
and
arranges
for
the
records
to
be
imaged
and
catalogued
as
the
first
stage
towards
making
the
observations
available
for
scientific
study.
ACRE-
OCEANS
works
closely
with
OldWeather
and
Weather
Detective,
digitising
marine
weather
observations
via
citizen
science
projects linked to ACRE.
Contact:
Clive
Wilkinson
,
Research
Associate,
Climatic
Research
Unit,
University
of
East
Anglia,
Norwich
United
Kingdom.
ACRE Worldwide
This graphic shows the global reach of ACRE Chapters, Conferences and linked data
projects working on the retreival, digtisation and analysis of historical weather observations.
CLICK the image to download a larger version.
ACRE
is
now
linked
closely
with
the
new
4-year
EU
Copernicus-funded
C3S
DRS
,
which
brings
together
the
Met
Office
and
13
other
subcontracted
partners
to
provide
international
leadership
in
the
fields
of
terrestrial
and
marine
data
rescue.
Building
upon
existing
WMO
and
international
data
rescue
activities
and
standards
and
interlinked
closely
with
ACRE,
the
Service
will
construct
a
managed,
integrated,
state-of-the-art
repository
(portal
and
registry)
of
information
about
past,
current
and
planned
data
rescue
projects.
It
will
establish
well-defined
and
quality-
controlled
procedures
for
registering
current
and/or
planned
data
rescue
activities
and
provide
access
to
information
about
data
variables,
metadata,
data
images
,
digitisation
status
and
dat
a
quality
associated
with
registered
activities.
This
will
include
consolidating
paper
archives
through
to
imaging
data
formatting
and
quality
control
plus
visualisation
of
outputs
and
products,
whilst
piloting
the
use
of
new
tools,
techniques
and
approaches
in
data
digitisation.
It
will
also
track
and
update
this
information
for,
and
provide
new
terrestrial
and
marine
observations
to,
C3S
via
the
Copernicus
Data
Store
(CDS).
The
C3S
DRS
has
funding
support
for
data
rescue
activities
and
the
testing
of
new
data
rescue
tools
and
procedures
in
three
new/evolving
ACRE
regional
data
rescue
regions
in
the
Southern
Hemisphere
centring
on
Argentina,
South
Africa
and
the
higher
latitude
Pacific
sector
of
the
Antarctic
continent,
which
interlink
with
the
new
ACRE
Australia
regional focus.
Although
the
Service
partners
have
strong
links
to,
or
are
members
of,
various
WMO
Expert
and
Task
Teams,
and
are
thus
in
a
unique
position
to
bring
best
practices
to
the
Service,
it
was
felt
that
Service
activities
and
outputs
should
also
be
assessed
in
an
ongoing
manner
by
an
Advisory
Board
of
representatives
from
WMO
Data
Rescue
and
Climate
Data,
the
Joint
WMO-IOC
Technical
Commission
for
Oceanography
and
Marine
Meteorology
(JCOMM)
and
the
Global
Climate
Observing System (GCOS).
ACRE Argentina
The
Universidad
Tecnológica
Nacional
(UTN),
Facultad
Regional
Buenos
Aires,
in
the
city
of
Buenos
Aires
will
coordinate
data
rescue
activities
with
other
national
organisations
such
as
Armada
de
la
República
Argentina,
Prefectura
Naval
Argentina,
Servicio
Meteorológico
Nacional,
MinCyT
and
national
and
provincial
archives.
Contacts
will
also
be
sought
with
private
shipping
companies
or
the
institutes
of
no
longer
existing
companies
as
well
as
estancias,
historical
ship
log
books
and
weather
records. Various actions will look at:
•
Logbooks
from
Argentine
ships
and
‘stationary’ ships in port
•
Observations from lighthouses
•
Digitisation
of
Buenos
Aires
observations
from
the
1820s
onwards
•
Gaps
in
DWD
old
German
colonial
observations
between
1903
and
1930
•
Observations
from
old
railway
companies
Argentine
Daily
Weather
Reports
(DWRs)
from
1902-1980,
which
are
held
by
the
Met
Office
Archives
in
the
UK,
not
only
contain
daily
observations
of
many
ECVs
for
Argentina
(e.g.
pressure,
temperature,
winds,
relative
humidity
and
precipitation)
but
also
contain
similar
records
for
neighbouring
countries,
and
are
being
scanned
and
digitised
in
order
to
improve
historical
weather
data
coverage
across
Argentina
and
the
wider
South American sphere.
Research
activities
looking
into
climate
variability
and
climate
processes
will
be
carried
out
both
with
the
recovered
datasets
and
with
derived
historic
reanalysis
products
to
characterize
the
evolution
of
the
climate
system
in
the
region. .
Contact: Dr Pablo Canziani, Unidad de
Investigación y Desarrollo de las
Ingenierías, Facultad Regional Buenos
Aires, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional,
Argentina
ACRE Australia
ACRE
Australia
brings
together
scientists,
historians
and
volunteers
from
across
Australia
working
in
data
rescue
and
historical
climatology.
Data
have
so
far
been
rescued
through
several
citizen
science
and
research
initiatives,
including
Weather
Detective
,
South
Eastern
Australian
Recent
Climate
History
(
SEARCH
),
Team
Todd
,
and
Team
Belfield
,
with
more
currently
underway.
ACRE
Australia
aims
to
be
a
focal
point
for
interdisciplinary
discussions
and
projects
on
rescuing
historical
weather,
climate
and
environmental
data
across
the
country
and
its
nearby
seas.
We
are
also
aiming
for
close
collaboration
with
neighbouring
ACRE
Chapters
and
relevant
environmental
history
organisations,
to
promote
a
stronger
community in the region.
For
more
information
on
current
projects
and
data
sources,
visit
the
ACRE
Australia projects list.
Contact:
Dr. Linden Ashcroft
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Melbourne